Telenor makes a contribution to Sustainable Development Goals- Agenda 2030

Telenor, one of Pakistan’s leading mobile operators, has been under the spotlight for its hail-worthy initiative for Birth registrations. Pakistan, ranked 8th on the global chart for helping people out, has been home to people and organizations that have contributed to the betterment of the underprivileged since its creation. Telenor Pakistan, has played its part.

The Digital Birth Registration (DBR) project from Telenor Pakistan has been nominated for the prestigious GSMA Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) 2018 in the ‘Outstanding Mobile Contribution to the UN SDGs’ category. According to the corporation, ‘DBR aspires to provide the fundamental right to identity to millions of children across Pakistan, lack of which is a critical impediment in the provision of basic services to citizens by the governments’, GVS reported earlier.

Birth registration acts as a key enabler for a multitude of development outcomes including access to healthcare, education & social protection ensuring reduced inequalities thereby supporting a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals.

At Mobile World Congress Americas, the Global System for Mobiles Association GSMA, which is a global body for mobile operators all around the world, launched a new worldwide campaign to highlight the impact that mobile technology has on the lives of more than 5 billion people around the world. The “Case for Change” will put the contributions of the mobile industry in the spotlight that are working towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the process are connecting people in order to create a better future for the world.

More often than not, it is dubbed as the ‘Oscars’ of worldwide telecommunications industry, GSMA Global Mobile Awards recognize and celebrate the phenomenal successes and contributions that are registered by mobile operators across the world.

‘DBR was designed to create an enabling environment by making the process of birth registration user-friendly, efficient and transparent and providing facilitation to citizens and other stakeholders through not only infrastructure and capacity building but also through innovative use of digital technologies.

Telenor Pakistan joined hands with UNICEF and local governments to develop a comprehensive mobile-based solution to give parents an unprecedented access to birth registration of newborns and unregistered children of up to 18 years of age.

The availability of timely and accurate data will also enable better planning and decision making at policy level. Besides giving the Pakistani children the right to identity and thus access to basic amenities, the initiative also sensitized the masses about the efficacy of mobile technology as a means to access public services. Since its inception, the service has registered impressive impacts in rural and urban areas of the country’.

Telenor Pakistan’s Digital Birth Registration initiative, launched in partnership with provincial governments and UNICEF Pakistan, has proved itself to be a standing effort towards mediating child’s right to identity by augmenting birth registration process in Pakistan. With Telenor’s ever-growing user base and GSM plus 3G and 4G footprint, the service can be utilized by citizens all across the country.

‘In Pakistan, the process of birth registration has been marred by a host of socioeconomic and cultural hindrances including time, cost, travel, processing complexities, and a general lack of awareness among the masses limiting registrations to only one-third of all children in the country.

More often than not, it is dubbed as the ‘Oscars’ of worldwide telecommunications industry, GSMA Global Mobile Awards recognize and celebrate the phenomenal successes and contributions that are registered by mobile operators across the world.

“Operators and ecosystem players around the world are doing some amazing work to create this better future – and we need to tell those stories,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “Case For Change demonstrates the direct, positive impact that mobile operators have on the lives of billions of men, women and children around the world, on their communities, on economies, and on society as a whole.”

Due to the non compliance of parents with birth registration procedures and other administrative hurdles, one third of the population in Pakistan is effectively invisible living without access to education or healthcare, the GSMA’s Telenor feature explains. The 5 minute video titled ‘Giving Invisible children in Pakistan an identity’ is a tale of how Telenor has contributed to social development with its initiative.

Telenor Pakistan joined hands with UNICEF and local governments to develop a comprehensive mobile-based solution to give parents an unprecedented access to birth registration of newborns and unregistered children of up to 18 years of age.

The “Case for Change” will put the contributions of the mobile industry in the spotlight that are working towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the process are connecting people in order to create a better future for the world.

With progress in terms of the initiative of birth registrations and the provision of unique identities to the most underserved, Telenor has outdone itself in sustainable identity solutions that have the potential to be taken to a national scale and deliver social returns, a press release said.

In addition to establishing a child’s identity, birth registration acts as a key enabler for a multitude of development outcomes including access to healthcare, education & social protection ensuring reduced inequalities thereby supporting a number of UN Sustainable Development Goals. Owing to this initiative, the country has seen over 45,000 birth registrations over the past 5 months.

“Beyond showcasing the tremendous power of mobile, the Case for Change serves as an opportunity to bring a wide range of stakeholders together in addressing the SDGs,” Micheal O’Hara had said, addressing the launch of the Case for Change. “This is not something that we can accomplish alone as individuals, as companies, even as an industry; we must work together, united, to make the 2030 agenda a reality”. Telenor seems to be contributing to the vision well and a congratulations is in order!

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